Argider
Argider is a heavily forested country nestled between the Amrali Provinces, Dahaan Havazh and Marujai. Surprisingly, very little of the outgoing trade from this country involves lumber or woodwork. The largely human population instead consists mostly of farmers and miners unless in one of the trade towns. The iron and the steel they forge from it are good – not as strong as dwarven by any means, but also noticeably less expensive. Medicine men and Hedge witches are fairly common in the towns as well – leading to a strong Alchemists’ Guild and some renown – but what is truly notable is the craftsmanship of the Argiderran tinkers. Hawkers say that so long as it is wound weekly an Argiderran watch will never lose its time – and aside from deliberate damage, they have yet to be proven wrong. Due to this, most of the consistently incoming money to Argider comes from Marujai. As the Marujin people produce more grain and textiles than anything else, the country’s mages that used channels had to outsource their supply of trinkets, carved amulets, totems and what have you. Beyond that, Marujai and any other country willing to reach out its trade arm through Marujai or across Dahaan Havaazh would find great use for the tinkers’ crafted alchemical tools and the alchemists’ medicines. The Amrali Provinces, on the other hand, find little use for the tools when their central city was so well known for its Healers already. The slums could use them, and even more they could use the Argiderran medicines – but they often cannot afford either, especially with the expense of keeping the medicine fresh on the journey. While in an emergency Amerale buys or deals for large amounts of the cheaper metal for its wars, but the Provinces could – and often do – get much better from Belegost just across the water. Most recently the metals trade has picked up between Amerale and Argider, despite no sudden increase in hostilities towards or from the more southern nation, leading Argiderrans to whisper that something may have happened to the dwarven nation. Belegost itself has little to no contact with Argider, as does Malderi. The dwarven stronghold and surrounding island nation are not far from the Argiderran coast, however that area is heavily forested and even if a place to safely dock is found the scouts sent into the woods usually either don’t get far or never come back. Those who return come out with fantastic tales of seal people that “well, no, I couldn’t be close enough to be sure and, well, I’m not exactly sure what those plants I ate were.” Little stock is held in these stories. This forest stretches from the coast through the center of Argider, leaving the farms and towns in a crescent around it. This leaves many of them quite far from the capitol, a small city called Ausra led by the country’s Guild Masters, but none worry. The few times outsiders tried to invade in the past the population simply retreated into the forest. The invaders never got far in the strange darkness of those woods and each time the lands outside simply died. When the invaders left – refusing to wander labyrinthine paths with naught to fight but trees for dead land – the citizens would return and rebuild. Each time was costly, and sad, but it always worked. Outsiders wonder why Argiderran borders extend past the forest at all, but the citizens hold the forest sacred. The words “Twyla Merav” are uttered by the populace in ever more fervent, hushed tones the closer to the edge you travel. The trees may not be cut down and its creatures may only be hunted as a necessity. The most common human entrants to the forest are the Masters of the Alchemists, to find rare or exceptionally potent ingredients, or those taking the Trade Road. The Trade Road has four entrances: one halfway along the length of the Amrali-Argiderran border, one halfway along the border shared with Dahaan Havaazh, one at the eastern edge pointed towards Faidor two thirds or so of the length of Argider from its west coast that eventually leads to Ausra and one about a third of the way along the northern border from the coast to Marujai. Short of taking caravans all the way around Argider this Road is the surest way past the forest, so it is very heavily travelled and quite safe – so long as the travelers stay within a few yards of the road. Most travelers on the Trade Road enter or exit from the direction of the capitol, as all the bordering countries but the Amrali Provinces can be reached easily from there. As such, the road out of Twyla Merav in that direction is a prime location for all services geared to support travel and trade, the most popular of which is nestled right on the edge of the tree line. The Stone Tree Hall is a well known tavern frequented by adventurers, wanderers, runaways and traders alike. Unsurprisingly, it attracts many who expect to find a stone tree. All those seekers get is a laugh from the regulars and an oft repeated phrase from the owner, one Senka Zaar: “If you do not know about that, you have not been as far into the woods as I have.” Twyla Merav Twyla Merav is a “dusk forest”. This is because it has such a dense canopy that even at high noon the woods get no brighter than a gentle twilight. The amount of undergrowth is unusually low in many areas, leaving each section that way with nearly the same feeling as a cave whose many stalagmites and stalactites have met in the middle to form pillars. The only exception to these descriptors is the Trade Road, over the center of which there is a thin break in the canopy to let in enough light to reach just about a yard past each edge of the path. The Master Alchemists, when they need one of the ingredients that makes Argiderran potions and poisons unique, will venture deep through these areas of the forest to find pockets of thick foliage and tree trunks covered in ivies. Of course, they get this far safely only because part of the test to become a Master Alchemist in Argider is to form a personal treaty with the Tauta. The Tauta are a mixed kin people who populate the majority of Twyla Merav. Primarily Bird-kin (Nightjars on the ground, Screech-owls in the canopy), their numbers also include some Mink-kin and it is assumed others – the western lands of this people only welcome its own. There is no prejudice between them – their forms are all very humanoid so they are not forcibly separated by biology (a mixed child would randomly be one or the other entirely, in the same manner a child of any race would be randomly boy or girl rarely both) and from what can be gleaned from those few who befriend the alchemists their leader would not permit petty racism of any form beyond that. Racism against outsiders is fair game. When questioned about their leader one would expect the Tauta to be remarkably tight-lipped, and those who have actually met the leader are, however many don’t know much about the leader at all. All that can be gleaned is that the Tauta revere their leader rather like the Argiderrans revere Twyla Merav. The only Argiderran who ever meets the Tauta leader is the Guild Master of the Alchemists, who acts as liaison between the Tauta and the rest of the Guild Masters. As such, it was an early Alchemists’ Guild Master who long ago facilitated the treaty between the Tauta and the Argiderrans. This treaty contained an agreement in which neither would enter the other’s territories without good reason and Argider would protect the Tauta from having to participate on the political world stage to remain an independent nation in exchange for the retreat into the woods when Argider is invaded. This treaty has been honored stolidly by both parties since that time. One other group has the ability to pass through the woods, but they are not Argiderran. They are the trade caravan Jhael’mitra, who once had Senka Zaar as one of their own. Category:Places